Category: Academics

I have a new article up at The Daily Beast on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s controversial LGBTQ+ employee policy; employees are not allowed to endorse or affirm LGBTQ+ relationships and remain at IVCF. InterVarsity’s re-entrenchment of heterosexuality as the only acceptable identity is seen by many of those who are personally invested in their organization as troubling. It may lead to not only their de-recognition by colleges and universities—something they’ve faced in the past—but also the inability to have a table at the annual Society of Biblical Literature.

Check out the piece:

“When InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA endorsed Black Lives Matter last December, it saw racial reconciliation as “an expression of the gospel.” The evangelical student outreach, which has 1,011 chapters on 667 campuses, was both criticized and praised.

A recent controversy over the group’s position on same-sex relationships and how it affects employees, however, shows that any fears of their impending liberal takeover are greatly exaggerated….”

In July I wrote an article (“Losing Faith in Religious Higher Education“) for the Chronicle of Higher Education on leaving Christianity and my resulting choice to leave my position as a professor in a seminary. It was well-received, which was a relief.

I have many ideas for follow-ups to that piece, each dealing with different aspects of leaving faith, from the personal and observational to the intellectual reasons that brought me there. The first of these is now out and since it isn’t about higher education I pitched it to The Guardian’s opinion section.

I received my author copy of The Ecumenical Edwards: Jonathan Edwards and the Theologians (Ashgate, 2015), today, which has my chapter “The Erotic Side of Divine Participation: Jonathan Edwards, Gregory of Nyssa, and Origen of Alexandria on Song of Songs 1:1-4.” I wrote this almost three years ago, so it is nice to see it finally in print. It comes out on August 28.